How do we know where ASD ends and comorbids begin?

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Dude - It gave me six conditions.

Is that normal, or does everyone get all six and they just put them in order of severity?

I'm confused because none of them are quantified.

Look at my first one (LMAOOOO ) -- I don't know how I got that at all.

I think I have OCD, not the washing hands type or keeping things neat type, but I mean the obsessive thoughts type, where I can't rest until I have expressed my thoughts that keep nagging in my head and sometimes can make me paranoid - but not like schizophrenia. There are no voices or anything like that, just feelings more like, or emotional thoughts. I don't know, but definitely not schizophrenia.

I definitely have anxiety disorder and although I'm sociable I still have social anxiety, especially when out in public.

I get bouts of depression which is tied with self-loathing.

I have PTSD from my high school days that contributes to my social anxiety and paranoia (thinking people are judging or out to get me).

And RSD. I'm beginning to hate RSD, as it seems to make me appear as a manic, neurotic, oversensitive, paranoid, self-obsessed freak online. I've always had RSD but I hadn't heard of it until recently, on an ADHD Facebook group. When I was 17 I remember first impressions going really badly when I first met new people at college, that I got overwhelmed with social anxiety and depression and had panic attacks, so I couldn't face going in to college for a week or two.

Did you do the quiz, Joe?

Which of these things are diagnosed by observable behavior, and which are diagnosed by observable differences in biology, which then result in some kind of effect? If it is just behavior, you don't really know anything.

EX) Sally has been observed to avoid eye contact.

*Does Sally EVER look at another person's eyes, or does she look at them quickly and then look away?
*Does Sally avoid every person's eyes, or just the eyes of certain people?
*Does she always avoid eyes, or just in certain situations?
*and so on and so forth

The eye contact aversion could be cultural, anxiety with autism, anxiety without autism, distraction with ADHD, distraction without ADHD, poor vision, or lots of other things

And then let's say we're looking at biology. I don't know a great deal about this, but let's take for example a small bit that I DO know.

Because lots of autistic people have donated their brains "For Science", the "Scientists" have noticed that autists seem to have smaller cerebellums than others. However, they are not sure why this is. Are the cerebellums becoming smaller over time, or are they just naturally smaller for autistic people? I have a cerebellar problem myself, so I happen to know that most of what the cerebellum does is control your smooth movement. There are not a lot of autistic ballerinas. There are more clumsy people. But no one knows why or if that is important. So if you happened to see a biological difference, you're still almost at square one.

TLDR: It is up to you to decide where ASD ends and a comorbidity begins. Many symptoms overlap. You may not have one or more conditions you have been diagnosed with.

I think I have Tourette's but apparently there's no test for it. It's hard to say where Tourette's starts and stimming, RBFBs, and echolalia begin. As for OCD I really don't think I have it but maybe there were questions about rumination etc., and I do those because of ASD. Kind of odd I didn't get Depression, but whatever! That's fine!

Great test though!
I really like how it was structured and went into so many areas.
ADD-itude is always such a great resource.

Another friend of mine got 8 things, so I guess we're all different!

Mine came back with ODD. f**k that!

I am diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, GAD or Anxiety, and SPD.
SPD was diagnosed in my ASD testing as well as a private Occupational Therapist.
She calls it SID or Sensory Integration Disorder.

In that respect I wasn't surprised by those four, or even by Tourette's.
I'm asking my doctor about Tourette's later this week.

I'm not sure what the other possible results are besides Depression.
I think I saw Bipolar mentioned in the intro.
I know I don't have Bipolar or Borderline or Schizophrenia as I've been tested quite a bit for those.
I think it said there's 12 options? (Must re-read .... but ADHD lol ....)

It's odd the Depression didn't pop up for me, but whatever. Good to know.

OCD was the only curious one but I can accept it.
It's just strange no one has dx that before for me.
I don't have any compulsive behaviours beyond stimming.
Obsessive? idk - Rabbit hole thinking is about all.
I don't have preoccupations about tidiness or checking things repeatedly.

According to Dr. ADDitude I've got Bipolar, Depression, ADHD, Autism, Tourette's, ODD, SPD and Anxiety.

I don't believe I'd meet the criteria for Tourette's, the others all seem reasonable.

My results: OCD, depression, autism, ADHD, and SPD.

It’s accurate except for the OCD. I don’t have compulsions and haven’t been diagnosed with that. I have GAD and PTSD.

I think a lot of us are going to get an OCD result because of our autistic brains.
It might give a different result if we could have told it we were autistic before starting.

It's almost like it doesn't do any differential diagnosis and instead gives a list of everything that might be relevant.

This makes sense, if the goal is to get people to discuss things with professionals. The doctor will perform the DD.